Sunday, 30 June 2013

Timber Floor Finishes

Do you like black painted timber floors? Could you, would you, should you even consider them as an option? I must admit, I really do love their appearance - and they look pretty damn sharp in these stunning images by local photographer Toby Scott (which, by the way, is another recently completed project by OVP. Can't you tell?)




Owen+Vokes+Peters - Bardon House (all images via OVP)

Makes me want to grab a paint brush and break open a tin of Black Japan. And when I look at these images, I start to think about using black cabinetry in the kitchen again. Oh decisions!!!

But from a functional perspective, how easy are they to keep clean? What about the dust, and crumbs on the floor? (My kids happen to be very messy eaters.) Would it do my head in?

I spent a bit of time researching different floor finishes for our timber floors - a combination of original hoop pine flooring and blackbutt which will be laid in the new addition. I finally decided to choose a hardwax oil in a clear satin-matt finish (rather than a polyurethane coating) for the following reasons:

ECO FRIENDLY
Hardwax oil is based on natural oils and waxes that penetrate into the wood surface making the floor extremely tough and hardwearing.

EASY TO REPAIR AND MAINTAIN
Flooring that is damaged or showing signs of wear in patches is easily repaired by simply cleaning the surface and applying a maintenance coat to the area. There is no need to sand and re-finish the entire surface.

NO NEED FOR FUTURE SANDING
Conventional lacquers require sanding the entire floor back to bare timber to re-coat, which reduces the thickness of the timber -  can be a problem when you start to run out of timber above the tongue and groove.

Example of Hardwax Oil -  matt finish
Do you have a black painted timber floor? Care to share the pros and cons? Love them or hate them?

I'll leave you with a final image of the bathroom from the same house above. I love the detail, including the brass edging around the mirror. We have the same tiles and tapware specified for our bathroom and ensuite.




25 comments:

  1. Zara30 June 2013 at 14:37

    The black floor does look stunning with the crisp white but I can imagine the dust and crumbs causing a daily headache with cleaning.
    The last house we rented had a combination of dark hardwood in the original part of the cottage and newer lighter (maybe pine) floors in other rooms. The yellow of the pine I didn't really like much. x

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  2. Ness30 June 2013 at 17:40

    I know even with our dark stained floors they show EVERYTHING! I find the natural wood brings in so much warmth and depth the a room. But that is just me-and I do like the look of those first pictures! x

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  3. simmone30 June 2013 at 19:35

    Love the look of the black floors but you would probably need to sweep everyday. Restoring the Old Girl has her floors black japped and they look lovely. We used tung oil based estapol on our back floors so we could just clean and recoat them when they wear.

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  4. Mum E30 June 2013 at 20:37

    I like the look of the dark floors. We're considering a dark finish to tie in our new and old pine flooring. I worry about how practical they will be with a toddler and a baby though.
    BTW- did you see the weather report tonight? Not looking good for our posts going in tomorrow! :-/

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    1. Caroline30 June 2013 at 21:16

      I KNOW! Ours are due to go in as well. xx

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  5. Unknown1 July 2013 at 01:05

    wow! decisions. I like the look of both (I know that is not much help). I hope you are at least having fun with all these fabulous design decisions. xo

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  6. Lena Gatti1 July 2013 at 01:48

    I love both and I'm super glad to see you going down the Eco road too :)

    You could have both you know - a section say as a feature and the rest timber ... I am considering painting the floor boards in the kitchen white ... This too looks amazing ... When we rip the tiles up ... But the rest I will leave pine... Just for something diff !!! The only prob tho with the paint is that once you paint if you want to change it - headache to remove paint !!!

    I say go for some original interior design style - do something out of the ord - these pics look fab xxx

    HLQ

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  7. Mother Down Under1 July 2013 at 09:03

    When we pulled out our carpets, lino and layers of newspapers we found that the hall, living room and bedroom had been done in Japan Black and the other rooms were just raw wood. I love Japan Black so we left those room and then stained the other rooms the darkest brown we could find...we had neither the time nor the money to do Japan Black when we moved in. I love the way it looks. Our "formal" rooms are black and our other rooms are a sort of industrial version of the same.
    As for crumbs and think I think the dark floors are better than lighter coloured floors...you can sometimes see a light sheen of dust but our dog is black so at least her hair blends in!

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  8. Anonymous1 July 2013 at 14:55

    Maybe have a think about how much natural light you'll have? Our floors were really dark when we arrived and are now natural coloured hoop pine in the finish you're looking at. Really practical but mainly bc our house was too dark to carry off a dark floor. Your pictures all look to be flooded with natural light and they do look stunning!

    Merridy

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    Replies
    1. Caroline1 July 2013 at 15:30

      Definitely agree with you there regarding natural light. I don't think we could pull it off at our house - the kitchen only has the original sash window. Although once the framing and new windows/doors are installed in the scullery I'll have a much better idea how this will add to the light in the rest of the kitchen area. xx

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  9. Bungalowgirl1 July 2013 at 21:15

    Now you know I'm not a huge black fan in general from previous comments, however I will say that my dad has very dark jarrah floors though and while they look amazing they do need sweeping daily and show the grot of small children very easily. i imagine black would be worse, even the mud would show up! The house we are renting has amazing lime washed pine boards (like kara rosenlunds house) and while I could never talk Legoman into them, they look amazing, really lighten the room and hide the grot. We will be leaving ours honey coloured. mel x

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  10. Cattle and Cushions2 July 2013 at 14:24

    I really like the look of a black floor, but I know that the dust would drive me insane. I really love the look of that floor you are looking at - gorgeous!

    I have polyurethane shiny floors and they do need redoing after a few years of hard wear. So that looks like a great finish to go for. I second checking "Restoring the old Girl" as I think she did a post on how her floors were coping with real life living. Good luck!

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  11. Mel @ Coal Valley View2 July 2013 at 22:18

    I LOVE the look of the black flooring. If it were matt black would it be easier to keep clean/hide the dust? not sure. We have brushbox flooring which is a darkish tone with a satin finish and you can see every speck of dust on it (not that I do anything about it on a daily basis) but it drives me insane. I love the look of the hard wax finish, that is what I would go for if I were getting new flooring. Subway tiles are my favourite! Good luck! Mel x

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  12. Jade3 July 2013 at 15:49

    LOVE black floors! I've just put down black floor tiles in my bathroom and will be doing black lino throughout the rest of the house as soon as I have some of that magical thing called "money"!!

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  13. Unknown4 July 2013 at 19:15

    The black floor looks lovely very striking!! I painted my daughters bedroom floor white and although it looked lovely it was a complete pain to keep clean and showed every mark!!!

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  14. Anais24 November 2013 at 12:32

    Hello, I have a black japan floor...(floating floor as am in apartment) I have a 1 year old so I mop at least 3 times a day and then have to dry off with cloth so no trace of water is left on floor and it still looks dirty... I would never recommend a black floor - My husband loves the floor though.... Before the baby i still moped every day. We are saving for a renovation (haven't decided by who yet) in the next year and I am interested how living with your wax floor goes.

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    Replies
    1. Caroline24 November 2013 at 13:15

      Hi - that is way too much mopping! My sister renovated her house about 7 years ago and she used Polyx Oil from Osmo (a hardwax oil) on her blackbutt floors which still look as good as new. I'm still tossing up between Osmo and Whittlewax - but they are basically the same. xx

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  15. Amanda1 October 2019 at 21:02

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  16. Amanda1 October 2019 at 21:17

    Hey Caroline, let me say my cordial thanks to you for your grand work. You really pushed an essential and worth article here. Who doesn't love to decor her/ his home? Certainly all answer will be "Everyone who loves home." I also pretty care about my home and always try to make my room and soundings with different attractive substances. Yeah, I like to my floor stunning look and surely it's with timber. Though I black is my less interest but love dark orange with a bit black touch. BTW I totally enjoyed your nice produces like all the images and the cleanly sharp and shiny wall and floor. I definitely would be happy appreciating your brilliant presentation and also please to share to visit website here that may be helpful for the decor lover.

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  17. Ana Kerry20 December 2020 at 03:10

    Simply this was one of the best reading on the timber flooring topics. You represented the ideas very well. Really the black painted floor looks so bright and elegant. Glad to know about the hardwax oil and its uses. Also the reasons of it using you clarified were very authentic and worth to take a try. I basically, try to find the flooring ideas by searching flooring store near me and always make my choice taking a deep look into the review by other customers. By the way it was indeed a good experience.

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  18. fashionsfits15 June 2021 at 19:08

    It is imperative that we read blog post very carefully. I am already done it and find that this post is really amazing. long good morning messages

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  19. Amanda11 October 2021 at 22:11

    What a finish! What an timber flooring idea! Love all the photos you added on this cleanly bright page. They look really awesome and gorgeous. I got huge points to pick up in my home loving knowledge. The floor of the Bardon house looks like a black mirror and the floor finished with the hardwax oil made me really crazy. My eyes got really stamped on the super beautiful looking floor. Ok, are you guys looking for hardware store in Toronto? Let's take a look into the flooreno.ca.

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  20. Tina Cromwell4 March 2022 at 23:11

    Love your final finish Caroline. Timber is indeed very useful substance for our home building or even remodeling. The floor you displayed here looked so so polished and glaring. Again the advantages of wooden floor you explained were also awesome to keep in consideration for any home decor addict. But do you think for any commercial building, will the wooden made floor be perfect or longer lasting?
    Here's the polished concrete floors for Toronto projects to check out for the commercial purpose.

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  21. Budget Floor Sanding Brisbane28 December 2023 at 20:32

    You represented the ideas very well. Glad to know about the hardwax oil and its uses. You represented the ideas very well. floor Sanding brisbane

    ReplyDelete
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